Pages

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Chaos Space Marines Units and Tactics: Havocs

After a short break, I am back with another article for Chaos Space Marines. This time, we will take a look at havocs.

.

So Many Guns! Chaos Havocs have the option of taking a cornucopia or weapons, from special weapons such as meltas, flamers and plas to autocannons, las, Missile Launchers and Heavy Bolters. With all these options, there are actually two kinds of havoc squads you can build: The obvious Heavy Support Squad OR the Poor Man's Chosen Squad.

.

Heavy Support Squad: The heavy support squad rolls with 4 Heavy weapons in order to provide the best possible long range, heavy firepower! To do this properly, one must weigh the options presented and make a choice. I recommend taking a rhino to help block line of sight from the nastier enemy fire power or to deny a possible enemy outflank manuever on them. I strongly recommend taking either an icon of Chaos Glory or taking more than 5 men to help this squad and its weapons survive (maybe even both of them, but that depend on how many points you want to spend on them).

.

Lascannons can be attractive as 4 Lascannons is pretty scary, but at the same time, hitting with 2-3 of them will likely be overkill on transports and will likely give you a garaunteed penetrating hit on a Armour 13-14. Then you contend with the vehicle damage chart, which may not always be nice to you. For 215 for a basic squad of 5 CSM, before any other upgrade, like transport OR icon, you are 5 points off from a Landraider (which will not run or get pinned), which could at least get off two good lascannon shots and can hold people inside it OR for 10 points more, you could get a three man FEARLESS Obliterator squad. In my opinion, the four las cannon squad is not an option due to cost.

.

Missile Launchers can make for a pretty versitile squad with the option of popping transports, heavier tanks and killing MCs and MEQs with its Krak missiles OR Fragging hordes with ... uh, Frag missiles. This flexibility makes the squad a pretty attractive option with a better overall price for what you gain in capability. If going frag, you will have to account for the fact that not every blast template will find its mark and if you think you will face more hordes in a take all comers enviroment, then 2 missile launchers and two heavy bolters may be the optimal layout for you when taking havocs.

.

Autocannons are a great option for popping transports. Autocannons will net you 2 S7 shots per gun and will give you a great chance for popping most transports and will force wounds on monstrous creatures. The problem with Autocannons comes when dealing with hordes (not enough shots) or when shooting power armor (armour saves can negate your massive wounding capability). If you are packing them mostly to pop transports, then a good layout would involve a mix of 2 Autocannons and 2 missile launchers.

.

Heavy Bolters are great for dealing with hordes and forcing a lot of wounds on MEQs and they are cheap, but unless you are building a list just to kill hordes, you are sacrificing a HS slot for anti-infantry power which we can get in other FOC slots. As mentioned above, they can work well with missile launchers.

.

The Poor Man's Chosen are a good choice for packing a potent amount a high powered fire (or horde swiping flamers into a single squad. They don't get the fancy outflanking ability that Chosen get, but can be fielded for slightly cheaper than the Chosen. These squads can be kitted for smoking vehicles and MCs (plas and melta) or for defending against hordes (flamers). In this layout, I think the rhino is mandatory to get your troops where they need to be to do the most damage. Much like Chosen, these guys are really going to get in, kill what needs killing and then probably get killed. I like these squads to be cheap and run them at 5 men, taking an icon of chaos glory, only if I want them to stick around a little longer, but generally, I keep them as cheap as possible for all the reasons mentioned in my entry article about Chosen. The real weakness of this unit comes from the fact that they are taking a HS slot that generally should be given to some form of long range fire support unit.

.

Overall, Havocs are not a bad option and I recommend playing around with this unit and its possible options to see where your comfort zone is with them. I find them to be a pretty fun unit with a decent amount of killing potential. I generally field them in the Heavy weapons layout as it best fits the way our army works (and I always take Chosen). Chew it over and let me know what you think!

5 comments:

I use at least 6 of them and fit them with 4 Autocannons. They would destroy a Rhino 70% of the time, even if the Rhino has smoked and has cover saves. When the Rhino gets cracked open, it's time for the Vindicator to chew the rest up.

That's how I play them.

Also, with 6 men on some building or behind cover, it's quite tough to get rid of them especially if they have the Icon of Chaos Glory. Unless you have the Punisher-a-thingy that can churn out lots of plasma cannons shots on them, it's not worth it to shoot at them at all.

Possible because they are either too far away or my army has something else of higher threat value to be destroyed.

I really like that idea. A six man team is enough to buff you one wound before you start to lose icons or autocannons and the autocannon is a scary weapon in numbers. Thank for the feedback.You also bring up a good point that most enemies not shooting at them because there were more important and softer targets to shoot at.That is one of the great things I have always noted when fielding havocs; they generally get ignored for 2-3 turn before anybody even tries to kill them - even though my obliterators are not as effiecient at range and my havocs reliably kill a tank or transport a turn.

I run 12 havocs with 3 autocannons and 1 missile launcher. I was finding that I had plenty of AV 13 and 14 kill throughout my army and was having the biggest trouble killing rhinos and trucks consistently when I needed them gone. I also wanted to force wounds on marines and terminators without having to get too close in hopes they would be thinned out by the time I had to get in. It works. The squad is hard to kill by any means but assault. I play an entire Slaanesh army so their 24 attacks at I 5 when charged makes them sturdy to everything but the most determined assaults. Additionally, the numbers protect me from Snikrot which is extremely prevalent where I play. They have only broken once and that was the first time I faced the IG Psychic Battle Squad and that was sad.